The following article was written by M. Sharon Maxwell, LCSW, Ph.D. and Karen Oehme, J.D. and is merely a portion of the larger article which can be found by clicking here. Professional Providers are encouraged to stay informed regarding “Best Practices” in domestic violence visitation cases.

If supervised visitation programs are to continueto be used in domestic violence cases, there

must be a more critical examination of the current provision of services in programs with the

goals of enhancing the safety of participants and confronting evidence of domestic violence as

it is manifested in supervised visitation programs. There are a number of strategies that can be

recommended but they must be addressed system-wide and become part of a coordinated

community response to ending domestic violence.

Judicial Strategies

• A formal evaluation of the alleged perpetrator and the victim should be ordered prior to the

court-order for supervised visitation. A key component of this evaluation must be a lethality

assessment. The evaluation should be conducted by a mental health professional who has

had specific domestic violence training in conducting such evaluations.

• If domestic violence is confirmed, judges should order the batterer to complete a certified

batterers intervention program before ordering supervised visitation. This is currently

mandated in Louisiana ( Ver Steegh, 2000 ).

• Once a family court judge orders supervised visitation, a schedule for judicial review of the

case must be established and maintained ( NYSPCC, 2000 ).

• Family law judges should collaborate with their local supervised visitation programs on a

If, after conducting an intake, the Provider accepts a referral for visitation in a domestic violence case, it is important to identify behaviors that may subsequently impact visitation. It is critical to keep in mind that the goal of providing supervised visitation services, including Provider exchanges, is to provide a safe, neutral setting for parent-child access. If this cannot be accomplished, the visitation program must not accept the referral.

The following are behaviors sometimes used by batters that may affect a program’s ability to provide safe visitation:

Threats of violence toward the victim. This may include verbal abuse as well as attempted or actual physical assault.

Stalking the victim and children upon arriving or departing from visitation program. This can be done in person or through a third party family member or friend.

Intimidating children to reveal their current living arrangement, their custodial parent’s activities, their phone numbers.

Testing or violating staff or volunteers.

Intimidating visitation staff or volunteers.

Pitting one staff member against another to encourage divisiveness.

Requesting “special” privileges, such as unsupervised time with children.

Denial or minimization of abusive behavior (“It’s all a misunderstanding.”).

Blaming other parent for necessity of having to use visitation services.

Attempting to bring weapons (guns, knives, etc.) into program.

Threats or attempts to commit suicide.

Reducing Risk andEnhancing Safety for Visitation Providers

The point at which visitation services are ordered is often the period of greatest risk to the victim and children. Research indicates that victims leaving violent relationships face the greatest risk of death or serious injury in the period following separation. To enhance victims’ and children’s safety, programs should structure services in the following ways:

Providing well-designed security arrangements on site. This may include a formal policy for using on- site law enforcement officers, panic buttons to alert local law enforcement to problems, and other tools that staff are thoroughly trained in using, such as weapon detectors;

Having a safety plan in place for each family. This plan includes initial and ongoing identification of the risks to each member of the family;

Ensuring that perpetrators and victims do not come in contact with each other during visitation or Providers exchanges;

Arranging for separate arrival and departure times for victims and perpetrators;

Intervening in the visit if perpetrator denies, minimizes, or blames his or her partner for violence;

Reporting to the referring court any incident which affects the safety of program participants or staff; and

Requiring victims to bring a copy of their injunctions for protection for program records.

Company History

The public policy of the state of California is to protect the best interest of children whose parents have a custody or visitation matter in family court. Sometimes, based on issues of protection and safety, a judge will order that a child only have … Read more